“Rust Bucket” is a Rusty Little Distraction

So mobile games have quickly taken over a large portion of the gaming industry and here at DANamic.ORG, we recognise that people like to spend their lunch breaks on games available on their phones.

We’ll be showcasing games from the App Store (and Google Play) that we find interesting enough to capture your attention.

Let’s get started with Mobile Mondays!

Awww, it’s an adorable lean mean killing machine!

Rust Bucket is a typical roguelike, a genre of games that require you to walk about and progress to the next level while killing enemies who are in your way. Turn-based ones are slightly different: For every step or swing you make, your enemies make a move as well.

While I did manage to explain about 75% of the gameplay in a paragraph, Rust Bucket feels deeper than that. The enemies have different movement patterns and usually fall in one hit, but if you stay in their attack range, you too will get killed, forcing you to restart.

The game comes with a very intuitive tutorial that lets you experience the game while letting you get a feel for the controls. The fixed campaign reveals the various enemies and their attack patterns, allowing the player to get a good idea of how the game is like, once they’re done with it, without being annoying or guiding too much.

Once that’s done, you can move on to the meat of the game: Endless mode. You explore a dungeon full of enemies, breaking doors increases your score, and coins can be collected for purposes currently unknown.

Even though the game sounds simple, Rust Bucket can get absolutely challenging when the enemies begin to swarm your character. The game requires you to plan probably 3 steps ahead and evaluate your choices: Do you head into battle or take a step back to see if you’re in sync to hit your enemies before they kill you? More often than not, I find myself trapped because I am surrounded and unable to proceed without dying.

The cartoon aesthetics go well with the game: The monsters, when killed, explode into little chunks like Lego blocks rather than senseless gore and bloody violence. It’s a design decision that fits the cartoon art and sets the tone as a casual puzzle game.

Endless mode provides Rust Bucket a ton of replayability. More often than not, I would attempt to beat my previous high score and curse if the game outsmarted me. It’s a lot like Flappy Bird in that sense: Most of your mistakes come from your own lack of skill, yet feeling so close to beating it leads you to try again. Warning: It’s very addictive.

There a few things that I have to mention; the sound effects, I felt, were rather disappointing and I preferred playing on mute rather than enjoying it with headphones. Apart from that, the game settings are essentially the same throughout Endless mode; they could have reused some of the assets from the tutorial or even added something new.

Another point I should bring up: Rust Bucket feels incomplete. There is something missing and you can feel it while playing the game. It has charm, it’s addictive, it’s challenging but there’s a clear lack in identity. Between Rust Bucket and games like Angry Birds, the strong branding and individualism in the latter make for a memorable experience. Perhaps something to jazz up each round, similar to items in The Binding of Isaac, would complete the gameplay.

Still, Rust Bucket is a great fun if you’re looking to stave off 5-10 minutes of boredom and give yourself a mental workout. It’s currently free on Google Play but it’s quite infested with ads, which is a little annoying. The game will probably be updated in the future as there is a visible lack of use for coins in endless mode.